President Bola Tinubu has launched the Minimum Pension Guarantee (MPG), setting N52,500 as the minimum monthly pension for eligible retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
He said the guarantee, which had remained unimplemented for 22 years despite provisions in successive pension reform laws, was a statutory right of workers and not a discretionary benefit that any government could withdraw.
Tinubu, who was represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio at the launch of the Presidential Pension Security Initiative in Abuja on Tuesday, described the scheme as a major step towards strengthening retirement security in the country.
He directed future administrations to sustain the minimum pension threshold, saying subsequent governments could increase it but must not remove it.
“To every administration that comes after me, hear me clearly. This floor is now part of a compact between the Nigerian state and the Nigerian worker. Raise it, but never remove the floor,” he said.
The Minimum Pension Guarantee is designed to ensure that eligible retirees under the contributory scheme do not receive less than the approved monthly threshold.
Tinubu said the initiative would address a longstanding gap in pension administration, noting that Sections 71 of the Pension Reform Act 2004 and 82 and 84 of the 2014 Act provided for the guarantee and the establishment of a fund to finance it.
The President also launched PenCare, a healthcare programme designed to provide low-income retirees with free access to essential medical services. The initiative is being funded by the pension industry.
The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, said some retirees had been receiving monthly pensions of just above N20,000 before the introduction of the new minimum.
She disclosed that the Federal Government had established a N400bn Pension Protection Fund to finance the scheme, describing it as a major intervention to protect retirees whose monthly payments fall below the approved threshold.
Oloworaran said the N52,500 figure was determined through an actuarial assessment and would be reviewed periodically.
“The figure was not plucked from the air; it has been validated by an actuary, and it is subject to review. And it is funded,” she said.
She said the minimum pension guarantee had remained on paper for 22 years because successive administrations failed to provide dedicated funding for its implementation.
The PenCom boss said 173,209 retirees were expected to benefit from the initiative. Of the figure, 34 per cent retired from the Federal Government, 12 per cent from state governments and 54 per cent from the private sector.